It’s almost National Library Legislative Day, a two-day advocacy event organized by the American Library Association to champion library funding. This year’s event takes place May 4-5 in Washington, DC and brings together library supporters, leaders, and patrons.

Biddle Law Library is looking for several Penn Law students to work on faculty research projects under the mentorship of lawyer/librarians. A wide range of interdisciplinary assignments will stretch one’s research skills and provide opportunities for writing memoranda. Students will attend faculty colloquia (as available), learn how a dynamic faculty produces excellent scholarship and have an opportunity to earn letters of reference. Excellent writing and interpersonal skills are a must. Some experience in non-law disciplines is a plus.

If you have followed the recent news stories about new religious exemptions laws in Indiana and Arkansas, termed state Religious Freedom Restoration Acts, you may want to dig beneath the headlines and look at some legal scholarship. Below are four recent law review articles that will put the debate over religious exemptions and LGBTQ discrimination into context and offer some pointers for further research.

Be an efficient and cost-effective legal researcher in your summer position. Biddle is offering three tutorials: one that emphasizes effective research strategies; one that highlights many of the free and reliable legal research websites available; and a final prepare-to-practice session that reviews how to approach common summer assignments effectively. Come check them out!

This year is the 250th anniversary of the publication of Sir William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England, the single most influential book in the history of Anglo-American law. Blackstone’s was the first methodical treatise in hundreds of years to make the common law readable and understandable by non-lawyers.

Check out one of these Biddle tutorials which will orient you to the most frequently used legal materials in these jurisdictions. Going beyond case law and statutes, you will learn about practice materials, legal directories, jurisdiction specific legal newspapers, as well as the use of relevant continuing legal education materials.

Biddle Law Library is looking for several Penn Law students to work on faculty research projects under the mentorship of lawyer/librarians. A wide range of interdisciplinary assignments will stretch one’s research skills and provide opportunities for writing memoranda. Students will attend faculty colloquia (as available), learn how a dynamic faculty produces excellent scholarship and have an opportunity to earn letters of reference. Excellent writing and interpersonal skills are a must. Some experience in non-law disciplines is a plus.

Looking forward to your summer clerkship? Want to learn more about research materials that will support you in a litigation practice? Or are you preparing to write an interdisciplinary seminar paper? These two upcoming library research tutorials, LITIGATION RESEARCH and RESEARCH USING NON-LAW UNIVERSITY RESOURCES will be of interest. All tutorials carry One L research credit.

Off campus for spring break, but freaking out about some research you have to do? One of the fastest ways to gain access to restricted access articles and publications from off-campus is to use the Biddle bookmarklet! A bookmarklet is a tool that allows you to insert the proxy information into the link you currently have. Check out the Biddle Answers database for other answers to other questions!

It’s almost time for Spring Break! Some of you will be studying for those final exams and researching those final papers from a beach somewhere. Yay for you. Those of you stuck in Philly might want to check out the Bill of Rights, though, and take your legal education to another level.

Time to put those resolutions into action: start studying in the library. For those of you who still find the library a terrifying place, here’s a quick review of the variety of services you may find useful!

Reading and Examination period restrictions: During reading and examination periods, access is limited to Penn Law students, Federal Depository users, University of Pennsylvania faculty, alumni, and members of the bar. During the restricted access period, other Penn students should contact libraryaccess@law.upenn.edu to request access to use the law library collection for research prior to their planned usage.

﻿In an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Penn students called ABC’s series How to Get Away With Murder “over-the-top and sometimes unrealistic.” Biddle takes a look at the new series, and some of the other legal dramas available from the video collection.

The Penn Law Legal Scholarship Repository, a service of the Biddle Law Library, collects and preserves the scholarly output of Penn Law. All works are available for immediate download via PDF. Scholarship News highlights some of the most recent additions.

When fall is in the air, the Supreme Court starts it new session in Washington. With the October 2014 Term, students may be interested in upcoming cases, when the court will hear oral arguments, and where they can located important documents, like Petitions for Writs of Certiori. All of these can be found on Scotusblog, one of the most well-respected of law blogs.

The new academic year is well underway, and Biddle Law Library is once again abuzzwith journal cite and source hunts. Have you ever wondered how law librarians quickly, efficiently, and confidently identify federal legislative documents and more?

As many of you may know, Professor Lawrence H. Summers’ original February 3, 2014 “Reflections on Policy and the Aftermath of the Financial Crisis” lecture has been rescheduled for Monday, September 8, 2014.

Reading and Examination period restrictions: During reading and examination periods, access is limited to Penn Law students, Federal Depository users, University of Pennsylvania faculty, alumni, and members of the bar. During the restricted access period, other Penn students may contact libraryaccess@law.upenn.edu to request access to use the law library collection for research.

Some of you may have used Making of Modern Law: Legal Treatises, 1800-1926 in your source hunts or seminars to locate digital images of U.S. and British legal treatises. Now, there is the Making of Modern Law: Primary Sources,1620-1926, which complements and provides access to materials spanning three centuries.

A look at some resources which a new or summer litigation associate may find useful. We list some helpful civil procedure treatises, helpful discovery and pre-trial titles, and other useful federal practice materials.

You’re working on a seminar paper and come across a reference to a book or an article that is on point - but it isn’t at Biddle, on campus, or available as a pdf. Do you give up in defeat and look for a substitute resource available on campus?

Exercise and nutrition play an important role in maintaining the health and energy levels necessary for law school studies. For reliable and practical information on food, nutrition and exercise, check out the Food and Nutrition Information Center’s (FNIC) Nutrition.gov web site!

For upper-level students. This tutorial will review a number of library databases that students should use when looking for scholarship on their topic. Recommended for any students taking a research paper seminar.

Proquest Dissertation and Theses Fulltext (formerly Dissertation Abstracts) is a database of dissertations in a wide variety of disciplines from economics and religious studies to history and philosophy.

Looking for company filings? Need to learn about a new financial regulation? Want/need to learn about financial topics or securities laws? Here are just a few government agency websites which can serve as a great resource: the SEC, the CFTC and the CFPB.

Do you need to research a company? Learn about finance or securities law? Maybe find some data that you aren’t too familiar with? Biddle can help! One helpful resource is Bloomberg, which provides useful material in two different ways: the Bloomberg Terminal and Bloomberg Law.

By the end of this week, all 1Ls, LLMs, and transfer students should have received their Bloomberg Law, Westlaw, and Lexis Advance account information from Biddle Law Library. In addition to these databases, Biddle encourages students to make use of a variety of library services.

If you are a summer associate in Pennsylvania, if you intend to join a Pennsylvania firm after graduation, or if you are taking a clinical class, you may find it useful to know about some free legal web-based Pennsylvania resources. While these sites will not replace Lexis Advance or WestlawNext, they are great starting points to begin your research. This post collects a sampling of some free Pennsylvania primary sources covering case law, statutes, bills, administrative codes and regulations, and the constitution.

Biddle Law Library is looking for several Penn Law students to work on faculty research projects under the mentorship of lawyer/librarians. A wide range of interdisciplinary assignments will enlarge one’s research skills and provide opportunities for writing memoranda.

QUESTION - TRUE OR FALSE: You need an amicus brief or a memorandum for a case. You know it’s a document in the docket, and that means accessing PACER, but only the Biddle librarians can access that resource.

Have you ever found yourself looking for a basic introduction when researching a new area? Look no further than Biddle Law Library’s Research Guides. You can find a list of guides for several topics, including Legal Research Basics, Foreign and International Law, and Intellectual Property.

The Penn Law community now has access to the online edition of the Statistical Abstract of the United States, an authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic conditions of the U.S.

Looking for decisions of international tribunals, or interested in the application of international law in a foreign country’s courts? This kind of research can be challenging, since there is no consolidated database of all such case law, and when these decisions are published, they normally lack the headnotes and other editorial content American lawyers and law students are used to relying on.

Are you writing a paper about cybersecurity, online copyright, internet commerce, online freedom of speech, or any other issue that in some way concerns the internet? Be sure to check out the BloombergBNA Internet Law Resource Center, available to members of the Penn Law community through the library.

Law students are often inundated with information. Who needs more? But everyone acknowledges the growing influence of social media like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Blogs are another social media tool that today’s law student and attorney needs to use. The judicious use of information from quality legal blogs is a skill that today’s law student needs to master, along with skillful use of Lexis Advance, Bloomberg Law, or WestlawNext.

Have you ever wondered what political events surround the passage of significant Congressional legislation? Context can shed light on the meaning of a statute, by helping us understand what events transpired during enactment and how they might have influenced a legislature’s state of mind and choice of words during passage.

On Tuesday, November 27th, Biddle Law Library will present a workshop on the basics of using Lexis Advance. The workshop will be held from noon until 1:00 pm in T-345. To RSVP please email Ed Greenlee at egreenle@law.upenn.edu .

Start 2013 with a quick review of Lexis Advance! On Wednesday, January 16th, Biddle Law Library will present a workshop on the basics of using Lexis Advance. The workshop will be held from noon until 1:00 pm. Location is to be announced. To RSVP please email Ed Greenlee at egreenle@law.upenn.edu .

The IBFD Tax Research Platform is a key resource for researching international tax law. Containing extensive analyses of international tax treaties and national tax legislation and case law for 136 countries, IBFD also incorporates helpful tools for comparing the tax law of multiple jurisdictions and calculating applicable tax rates for cross-border transactions.

Biddle Law Library will present a CALI informational session focused particularly on students preparing for exams. The event will take place at the Clock from noon until 1:00pm on Tuesday, November 13th.

On Wednesday, November 7th, Biddle Law Library will present a workshop on the basics of using Lexis Advance. The workshop will be held from noon until 1:00 pm in T-345. To RSVP please email Ed Greenlee at egreenle@law.upenn.edu .

Biddle Law LIbrary will offer a workshop on Advanced HeinOnline Searching on Wednesday, October 31st. The workshop will take place in T-142 from noon until 1:00pm. For questions or to RSVP please contact Merle Slyhoff at mslyhoff@law.upenn.edu.

More and more apps are becoming available to legal professionals seeking to keep current with research trends and news. Some apps connect you with particular research databases while others offer headlines in particular areas of law.

On Tuesday, October 9th, Biddle librarians will be teaching the first session on franchise research to the students in the first year Legal Research and Writing course. The session will feature use of Lexis Advance, Bloomberg, and WestlawNext.

Research in Mixed, Religious and Other Jurisdictions along with Comparative Law Research will be examined by Biddle Foreign and International Law Librarian Gabriela Femenia on Monday, October 15 in her class on Research in Foreign and International Law.

The archives recently processed two relatively small but informative collections from the National Bankruptcy Archives and the American Law Institute Archives. From the National Bankruptcy Archives, came the Judge Joyce Bihary Papers, and from the American Law Institute Archives, came the Deborah A. DeMott Papers.

Resource of interest: ProQuest Legislative Insight is a federal legislative history service that makes available thoroughly researched compilations of digital full-text publications relevant to enacted United States public laws, with coverage from the 80th Congress (1947/1948) through the 112th Congress (2011/2012).

Research in Common Law Jurisdictions will be examined on Monday, October 8 in the Research in Foreign and International Law class conducted by Biddle Foreign and International Law Librarian Gabriela Femenia.

On May 8, 2012, the Penn Law community lost a great man, Judge Louis Heilprin Pollak. Pollak was a civil rights advocate, former Penn Law dean, U.S. District Court judge, and was regarded as one of the leading members of the judiciary in the country.

On Tuesday, October 2nd, Biddle librarians will be teaching company research using Bloomberg Law and business resources available through the Van Pelt library website. This is part of the first year legal research and writing program.

The United Nations and International Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) will be the topics of discussion on Wednesday, September 26 in the Research in Foreign and International Law class conducted by Biddle Foreign and International Law Librarian Gabriela Femenia.

Who says the Biddle Law Library needs to have just law books? I was walking through the stacks trying to find a book I was interested in reviewing when I came across thislarge, colorful book jutting out from among the others.

As we enter the political season full force after the Republican and Democratic Conventions, students of church and state issues will have a number of stories to follow as we approach election day in November, 2012. Blogs offer law students a good way to keep up-to-date on some of the key issues and debates particularly as they relate to the election.

In recognition of National Constitution Day on September 17th, and especially in light of Penn law’s September 17th exhibit featuring original documents from our country’s Founders, including James Wilson, the Biddleblog is pleased to repost this August 31, 2010 blog entry!

With a new academic year just beginning, changes inevitably arise. For journal students in particular, who wish to search for and obtain primary source Congressional publications, LexisNexis Congressional has been the first choice for comprehensive, quick and easy access to full text PDF images.

In 2008, Biddle Law Library (and the Biddleblog) showcased the world of Open Access legal publishing and information. According to the Science Commons, which runs the Open Access Law Program, “Open Access” publishing serves readers and researchers by providing free access to scholarship “without undue copyright and licensing restrictions.”

Biddle’s Foreign and International Law Librarian, Gabriela Femenia, will be teaching the first two sessions of her course “Research in Foreign and International Law” starting on Monday, September 10th. On Wednesday, September 12th, the topic of the class will be an introduction to public international law as well as the basics of international treaty research.

Biddle librarians will be involved with journal training for the Journal of Business Law on Friday, September 7th and for the Journal of International Law and the Journal of Constitutional Law on Sunday, September 9th.

On Tuesday, August 28th, Biddle librarians teaching in the LLM Legal Research and Writing course will give an overview on the use of Bloomberg and the Practical Law Company’s webiste in researching transactional materials.

Over thirty years ago, C-SPAN began broadcasting the political affairs of Washington to households across the country. Their recordings of Congressional sessions, political debate, and many other programs provide a wealth of information, contemporaneous and historical, about the discourse and actions which shape our everyday lives.

Due to scheduled publisher maintenance, the University of Pennsylvania Libraries reports that the following electronic resources will be unavailable between 10:00 pm on Saturday, August 18, 2012 and 10:00 am on Sunday, August 19, 2012.

On Friday, August 17th, Biddle librarians will be teaching in the LLM Legal Research and Writing Program. Friday’s class will feature search techniques, on both WestlawNext and Lexis Advance, in the context of the first memo assignment.

On August 6th, Biddle librarians will be teaching in the US Legal Research and Writing course for incoming LLM students. Topics will include the structure of the US court system and case finding methods.

The World Bank is well-known for its international efforts to provide developing countries with loans needed for capital improvements. Recently, the organization announced that it is going to make its “research outputs and knowledge products” freely available to the public.

Over the past few years, the world has seen a rapid explosion in technological development. The devices and services these innovations provide help make life easier, and their ongoing evolution will continue to provide users with increased opportunities and benefits. While technological innovations may move at a breakneck pace, the American legal system is slower to adapt. Constitution 3.0 explores the tension between law and technology, by projecting how this conflict might unfold in the year 2025.

Here’s a new way to keep an eye on what’s happening in Washington. MetaVid is a new video archive of the U.S. Congress, containing footage of legislative sessions going back to 2006. You can search or browse clips by the name of the speaker, words spoken, date, and user-contributed tags (categories of which include “Volcano,” “Tea Party” and “As Seen on the Daily Show.”) By combining a video library with a wiki format, the collection should get stronger and easier to use as its audience grows.

The Biddle Law Library will offer a wide variety of legal research training opportunities throughout the spring semester. Prepare for your summer or professional work experience by attending trainings specific to your jurisdiction or professional interest!

Jennifer Huck was the Systems and Emerging Technologies Librarian at Biddle. She supported the online library system and leverages new and existing technologies in support of library services. She recently…

Biddle Law Library at the University of Pennsylvania Law School will host the first MidAtlantic Academic Law Libraries Symposium on March 13, 2009. The symposium is being sponsored by Bloomberg, Law...

There are many interesting projects currently going on in the National Bankruptcy Archives, a repository of records and papers related to bankruptcy, debtor-creditor relations, and the reorganization of…

Doris Wang is a graduate student at the School of Library and Information Studies, Rutgers University concentrating on archives and information management. When not processing the Richard V. Wellman Papers...

Last summer, a couple of law school professors--Frank A. Pasquale of Seton Hall and Oren Bracha of Texas--posted an article to SSRN that called for the regulation of the Internet's gatekeepers of information: search engines. (More after the jump.)

Are you interested in staying current with the latest developments from the legal academy? Maybe a particular practice area? Or perhaps you merely want to relax and entertain yourself with the latest legal gossip? There is almost certainly a law blog (or "Blawg") that will be of interest to you. (More after the jump.)

The practices of mindfulness and insight meditation have gained ever greater prominence in recent years. Initial interest was expressed by medical and psychological professionals. Now legal educators and practitioners are exploring the uses of meditation and related practices. (More after the jump.)

This video discusses the history of the "Amen break," widely considered a foundational beat of hip hop and electronica, and how it serves as a metaphor for debates surrounding copyright of music not strictly available in the public domain. It's a long video, so if you're curious, the copyright analysis starts around the 10 minute mark. (More after the jump.)

What an exciting week at the Archives! I had a patron come all the way from the hinterlands of Norway to conduct research in arguably our most valuable records: The American Law Institute's "Statement of Essential Human Rights" Collection. (More after the jump.)

Last Friday, when most of you were probably studying for or taking exams, Drexel University Libraries sponsored a symposium on Intellectual Property Rights. Ed Greenlee, Bill Draper, Pat Callahan, and I were in attendance.

Merle Slyhoff oversees collection development of American law in Biddle and is head of resource sharing, which includes interlibrary loan. Merle is active in national library associations, including the American Association…